Capsule-filling machine



April 6 1926. 1,579,947

R. T. KILPATRICK CAPSULE FILLING MACHINE Filed May 2, 1924 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Hal HTTORNEY Patented Apr. 6, 1926.

UNITED STATES isms-47 FATENT QFFIQE.

CAPSULE-FILLING MACHINE.

Application filed May 2,

W to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in capsule filling machines, whichprovide for the mechanical separation of a material which is desired toput into capsules, into a desired number of parts, for discharging theseseparated parts into the same number of individual capsules and forpacking the separated parts into these capsules simultaneously.

The objects of my invention, are- First, to provide means whereby amaterial to be filled into capsules may be divided into a number ofparts.

Second, to provide means whereby the number of parts into which thematerial is to be divided may be varied.

Third, to provide means for holding a number of capsules correspondingto the number of parts into which the material has been divided.

Fourth, to provide means for supporting these capsules againstdistortion where it is desired to pack the material tightly into thesame.

Fifth, to provide means for guiding each part of the separated materialinto the corresponding capsule placed therefor.

Sixtlnto provide means for forcing these various separated parts of thematerial simultaneously each into its proper capsule and simultaneouslypacking the material into the capsule.

Seventh, to provide means for holding the filled ends of the capsuleswhile the lateral supporting means for the capsules is removed.

Eighth, to provide means for adapting the machine to various sizes ofcapsules, and

Ninth, to improve the details of construction of the machine.

I accomplish these obje ts as will be more 1924. Serial No. 710,491.

fully hereinafter set out in the drawings, specification and claims.

In the drawings;

Fig. 1 is a side elevation and partial section of the machine taken onthe line II of Fig. 2 with the machine empty.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the machine.

Fig. 3 isa side elevation and partial section taken on the line II ofFig. 2, with the male ends of the capsules in place showing thelateral'supporting means for these male ends raised to thereafter permitthe said ends of the capsules to remain supported so that they may be inposition to be readily capped when the filling plungers are withdrawn.

Fig. 4; is a plan view of the dividing and filling plate.

FFig. 5 is a section on the lineVV of Fig. 6 is a plan view of thedistributing box showing means employed to divide this box so that inthis particular instance selectively either or capsules may be filled atone time. i i

Fig. 7 is a section on the line VII-VII of Fig. 6.

, Fig. 8 is an inverted plan view of' a portion of a cover plate forholding the female ends of the capsules.

Fig. 9 is a section through one line of holes of a modified form ofcapsule holding plate showing means for forcing the capsules out. I

Fig. 10 is a plan view of the same plate- Referring now to the drawingsin which the various part-s are designatedby the same numerals in allthe'views, 1 is a supporting base from one side of which a bracket 2preferably integral with the said base projects vertically upward. "3 isan operating arm or lever, one end of which is pivoted in the upper endof the bracket 2, on a pin 4:. The base 1 is provided with a seat 5 onwhich rests a removable capsule supportingplate 6 which plate ispreferably rectangular incross sec tion and is surrounded andheldagainst lateral displacement by means of'aledge 7 which surrounds theouter edge of the plate 6. Normally resting on the supporting plate 6 isa removable plate 8, which plate is adapted to surround and support thesides of the capsules while they are being filled. These two platesforming a separable hold ing and supporting means for-the maletends ofthe capsules. Immediately above and resting on the supporting plate 8 isa removable hopper plate 9 and immediately above and resting on thishopper plate is a distributing box 10. The hopper plate 9 as will-bemore readily seen by reference to Figs. land is divided into a pluralityof equal sized, hoppers 11. These hoppers are rectangular in crosssection at their upper ends changing to a circular section at theirlowerends. The walls 12 dividing the hopper plate 9 into hoppers 11preferably come-to a. knife edge flush with the upper surface of theplate 9, and divide the hopper plate into hoppers arranged in rows atright angles to each other. The plate 8 on which this plate 9 normallyrests, is provided with the same number of cylindrical holes 18 whichcylindrical holes are adapted to register with the opening in the bottomof the hoppers 11 and likewise the plate 6 .is provided with the samenumber of closed bottom holes 1.4, which are adapted to register withthe openings 13 in the plate 8. These various plates are provided withsome means of making them register exactly one with the other, such forinstance as the dowel pins 15 'projecting from the lower side of theplate 8 and the corresponding dowel holes 16 in the plate 6, (Fig. 3).Similarly the plate 10 (Fig. 7)' is provided with dowel pins 17 whichengage the dowel holes 18 in the plate 9 (Fig. i), and similarly pins 19projecting from the lower surface of the plate 9 engage correspondingholes, notshown, in the upper portion of the plate 8. The :holes 13 inthe plate 8 pass entirely therethrough and are of a size adapted toclosely fit, Without building the male ends of some particular size ofcapsule. The holes '14 in the plate 6 extend downward from the top butdo not pass through that plate and are likewise adapted to closely fitthe same size capsule ends, the depth of these holes being slightly morethan one-half the diameter of the capsule ends which are to be heldtherein. The distributing box 10 has the lower portion of one side cutaway to form in connection with the top of the hopper plate 9, a slot 20through which a slide 21, (Figs. 6 and 7) may be inserted to separate itfrom the hopper plate 9. This distributing box also has a plurality ofoppositely disposed slots i32*22, 223 in a pair of which slots adividing plate 24- may be inserted to separate olt various numbers ofholes. The plate 24L- shown used by itself divides this box into twosections, one covering ten holes in the hopper plate below and the othercovering twenty holes in the same plate. A similar plate of greaterlength inserted in the slots 22, with the plate 2st in place woulddivide the box into -tour sections, one covering two holes in the hopperplate, one covering four holes, one covering 8 holes and one covering)lun 'ers-26 fastened thereto and de endin b U therefrom, theseplunger-s correspondingin number to the number of hoppers 11 and beingadapted to pass entirely through these hoppers and partially through thecorresponding holes inthe-supporting-plate 8 when the same is 'inlowered position, (Fig. 1) and entirely therethrough when in raisedposition. (Fig. 3). The plunger plate 25 is provided with an upwardlyextending bracket 27 to which side plates 28 are secured by means of apin 29 and these plates in turn are pivoted to the operating arm 3 bymeans'of a pin 30 so that the plunger plate 25 may be raisedor loweredwhen the operating arm 3 is raised, and may be entirely disconnected byremoving either the pin 29 or the pin 30. 31 is-a rod pivoted to theoperating arm 3 by means of a pin 32 which rod acts as a stop to limitthe downward motion of the arm 3. The lower end of this and Y31 isadapted to come against either the block 33 as shown, the upper surface3%. ofthe'base flange, or into the recess 35, the latterpositionpreventing material being forced below the top f the capsules.

To use the machine the-operating arm 3 is raised, entirely removing theplunger plate 25 and the plunger-s .26 from their bottom position in themachine, if desired being turned back 180 degrees. The distributing box10 and the hopper plate 9 are also removed and a holding plate (3 andsupporting plate 8, conforming to the size ot capsules which it isdesired to fill, are put in place in the machine. The male ends of thenumber of capsules corresponding to the number of parts into which it isdesired to divide a particular batch of material are placed in a compactgroup in the supporting-and holding plates and the hopper plate anddistributing box are then placed thereover. The slide 21 is inserted inthe groove 20 and a section of the distributing box ,10 isdivided off bythe proper division plates corresponding to the number of capsulesplaced in the supporting and holding plates. The material to be dividedand filled into the capsules is then placed in that portiomof themeasuring box which has been divided oil, is properly leveled up and theslide 21 withdrawn, allowing the material to drop into the hoppers 11,thus dividing the mixture into equal parts; The opcrating arm 3 is nowturned to bring the plungers 26 over the hoppers and they are pusheddownward therethrough carrying the material downward into the male endsof the capsules. If all this material is not pushed into the capsules bythe first clownward stroke the operating arm is raised and againdepressed and this is repeated until all the material in the hoppers 11is carried into and packed in the capsules. During this process theplate 8 supports the male end of the capsules against lateral distortionwhereas the plate 6 holds them up as well as supports their lower ends.

When all the material is in the capsules the operating arm 3 is helddown and the plate 8 carrying with it thehopper plate 9 and distributingbox 10 is raised until it comes above the top of the capsules, on whichit may thereafter rest while the plungers are being withdrawn so thatthe supporting plate, hopper plate and distributing box maybe removed topermit the capping of the capsules and thereafter the removal of thesame. This operation is of course repeated for each prescription whichis filled.

This capping may be done by hand, or should it be desired a cover plate36 shown in Fig. 8 practically identical in form witl the holding plate6, except that the holes 37 therein being for the female ends of thecap, sules would be larger than the corresponding holes 14 in theholding plate 6, may be used and the caps or female ends of the capsulesbe placed therein and the entire set of caps turned over and placed overthe corresponding male ends of the capsules at one time. Should there bea tendency for the caps to drop out of the cover plate 36 the holdingplate 6 with the caps therein may be removed from the base 1 and beturned up edgeways, the cover plate being complementary turned until themale ends and the female ends of the capsules are in substantiallyhorizontal position, when the two sets are brought together to completethe capping of the capsules.

In some cases I find that there is a tendency for the capsules to hangin the capsule supporting plate 6 and in such case I prefer to use amodified form of such plate such as is shown in Fig. 9. In thismodification the holes 14: which are normally formed with a closedbottom having a much smaller hole 38 from the lowest points of theirbottoms through the plate 6. 39 is a rectangular plate provided with anumber of projections a0 corresponding to the number of capsule holes 1%fitting within the holes 38, the said plate 39 either being entirelyindependent or being adapted to rest on projections ll from the base 1.

In use, this plate 39 is normally inoperati e n il a t the c p u e havebeen filled place and forces these capsules out of the holes 14-. c

It will be seen that this plate 39 even though supported by theprojections 41 of the base, may be removed by removing the plate 6 andin such case it may be used in connection with the cover plate 36 shownin Fig. 8. In that case this plate may be provided with holes 43corresponding with the hole 38 in the plate 6.

While I have herein shown and described the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, it is nevertheless to be understood that minorchanges may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention as claimed. This is specifically true as to thealigning means for the various plates, which may be aligned one with theother as the plate 6 is aligned on the base 1, by the dowel pins andholes, or by other suitable means.

It will also be readily seen that by using a square block adapted tocover a single capsule space and of length equal to the depth of thedistributing box 1.0 that any particular number of divisions blocked offmay be reduced one in number thereby, as for instance an eight spacedivision blocked off may be reduced to seven.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States, is c 1. In a capsulefilling machine, a supporting base, a capsule holding plate having aplurality of closed end openings therein, a capsule supporting plateadapted to rest on and be aligned with said holding plate and having acorresponding number of aligned openings therethrough, a hopper plateadapted to be registered with said supporting plate and having aplurality of hoppers each registering with a corresponding opening inthe supporting plate, a divisible distributing box adapted to rest onand be registered with said hopper plate, a removable slide forseparating said distributing box from said hopper plate, a plunger foreach of said hoppers, a plate carrying said plungers, an operating armhinged to said plate, a plurality of stops on said supporting base, anda rod hinged to and depending from said operating arm, and adapted toengage selectively any oneof said stops to limit the downward movementof said arm and the plungers carried thereby.

2. In a capsule filling machine, a support- 1 ing base, a capsuleholding plate having a plurality of closed end openings therein, acapsule supporting plate adapted to rest on and be aligned with saidholding plate and having a Corresponding number of aligned openingstherethrough, a hopper plate adaptedto be registered with saidsupporting plate and having a plurality of hoppers each registering witha corresponding opening in the supporting plate, a divisibledistributing box adapted to rest on and be registered with said hopperplate, a removable slide for separating said: distributing box from saidhopper plate, a plunger for each of said hoppers, a plate carrying said10 plungers, and an operating arni hinged to said plate, said supportingplate, hopper plate, and distributing box being vertically raisable fromsaid holding plate, with said plungers depressed.

In testimony whereol I have hereunto set my name.

ROBERT T. KILPATRICK.

